


Cypresses

by Tinnevelly



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 18:39:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 11,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1658453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinnevelly/pseuds/Tinnevelly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year of war, a year of mixed emotions. Matt comes home and a lot of things had changed. He had lost a family once and struggles with help of the robots not to lose one again.</p><p>TW: blood, war stories, loosing someone close and of course a lot of cursing</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there!   
> This is quite a dark fic so be warned. The idea has been in my head a long time only with different characters as the main role. But it's Matt's turn to shine now.
> 
> Disclaimer: Yadda! Band to band, no money, no Rabbits harmed, yadda!! ^___^

His whole body was in motion. The hip swung nonchalantly from one side to the other, the fingers snapped to the beat of the music, his shoulders moving up and down to bring the upper body into a dance. The feet found their way blindly through the house to his workshop. His vocal cords vibrated under the strain of his singing, his eyes were wide with joy. With an elegant twist he entered the workshop and turned off the music of his cell phone. An incongruous pair of blue and green eyes looked at him curiously.  
"Well, you are in a good mood." The copper robot cocked her head and grinned. The metal ears of the robot lady straightened up and twitched irritated when soft sounds reached her audio receptors.  
"Oh yes. Matt is coming home today." Michael remembered his friend and began the routine inspection.  
"You smell weird." Rabbit noted and twisted her face plates in a grimace.  
"Beer. Steve and I have been drinking and that’s why I have terrible heartburn." Michael checked the wiring and almost on command brought up a hand to hide a burp.  
"Didn’t you take your tablets?" Rabbit leaned forward on the table and held patiently all the necessary limbs in front of the technichian.  
"Haven’t any left. I just saw it as half the bottle was empty." Man grinned at the machine and patted the old chassis lovingly.  
"I'll be fine. How do you feel?"  
A brief silence, then Rabbit’s eyes shone. "My hearing in my left ear is gone." She said firmly.  
"Rabbit, if you put things in your ears, then you don’t hear a thing. This is quite natural." Laughter clearly repressed, Michael pulled a small powder puff from the copper pipe and handed it to Rabbit. This lowered her eyes and looked at the thing in her hands.  
"I've been wondering where it was. But everything else is good." She said and climbed already from the examination table.  
"Do pick up Matt from the airport?" She asked curiously.  
"No, he wanted to come by taxi. The military machines have probably other times when traffic flight. But we should, don’t you think?" Slowly Michael gathered the necessary papers and certified the monthly inspection of Rabbit before he frowned.  
"How was the war?" Of course he knew that these memories had actually been deleted long ago from Rabbit’s circuits and boards, but he was hoping for something with which he could work when Matt came back. Sure, he had spent his time in the army in a relatively safe area with relatively well-trained troops for only a relatively short time, but for Michael there were too many "relative" in a train of thought that he had problems to be happy with the idea.  
"He holds positions only, Michael. But he has written that he is doing well. And sure he has much to tell us." Rabbit pulled Michael to her and hugged him gently. She gently stroked one of her hands down his back to calm and soothe him.  
"I know. And I 'm also glad that he comes back at all in one piece. But what if down there something went wrong? If he has problems? This trauma thing?" The metal was cool against Michael’s forehead as he returned the hug and tried to be calmed down by Rabbit.  
"And what if he is doing well and he’s the old Matt?" She replied with a question. Deep down, she knew that no one was the man he had once been after a fight. War changed everyone, even if it was just a routine sortie. The basic training, nothing dangerous.  
"Be in his presence for the next time. Simply don’t be too loud. Then he's certainly dazzling." She finally told Michael before she pushed him away and looked at him. Deep lines of worry left the man with an older look and the dark eye circles betrayed his insomnia.  
"I won’t tell Petes that you're drunk?" Rabbit had quietly and confidentially spoken and yet Michael twitched as if she had hit him.  
"Yesterday! I 'm sober today!" Blood shot into the head of man as he tried to justify himself.  
"I believe you, Michael. And you always do good work. But why?" Rabbit knew some of the staff that regularly did alcohol and other drugs in order to forget life. But Michael and even the wild Steve did not belong to these people. Something more serious had to be the reason. Michael dared hardly to look in the eyes of his friend.  
"I can hardly sleep. I'm going crazy with worry about Matt. I can’t concentrate. I have paranoia." He admitted, shouted the last sentence almost in despair. Rabbit looked at him helplessly. Often enough they had seen broken people and it hurt to see a good friend like Michael like this.  
"But he does come home today." She tried to explain to him.  
"So what? Something will happen. It worked too well. What if his plane crashes?"  
Rabbit smiled briefly. She knew what she had to do. A small surge would take Michael back on the right track.  
"Ouch! What was that for?" The face contorted in pain, Michael rubbed his arm where Rabbit had touched him before the electric shock was used.  
"A neural restart. Because you are completely caught up in this situation. Everything will be fine, Mike. Matt will soon be here and we are cleaning and working. The kitchen makes something delicious for him and you should clean up Matt's room." With a gentle smile on her rubber lips she scolded him for his hysteria. With downcast eyes Michael sighed and then nodded slowly.  
"I just hope you're right. And Rabbit? You scare me when you call me like that." A short, almost shy smile crept to the lips of the technician and so made the robot laugh.  
"Of course, Mr. Reed!"


	2. Chapter 2

Blood, there was blood everywhere. Matt didn’t bother about why the ground wasn’t as slippery as it should have been. In time even his trained senses were dulled to the cries, prayers and of course the blood. Slowly he made his way through the stretchers and chairs on which were the soldiers at different stages. He did not stop at a deceased soldier to pull a sheet over his head. He almost hypnotized followed another track that ran through the blood. A fresh bandage soaked in red, fluttered before him, while the paramedics brought the latest patient into the converted operating room, calling frantically for a surgeon. With a steady hand he closed the door behind him and looked at the mess. Multiple wounds of diverse origin, some serious, others only superficially. The man would certainly bleed to death on the table, if no experienced surgeon closed the blood vessels soon. Emotionless Matt saw the paramedics work while they tried to distribute the antibiotic powder on the worst wounds with jittery hands. The doors behind him rattled when the doctor entered. He looked at the patient and shook his head before he turned and left the room. So easy a human life was discarded. The young soldier - Matt guessed him to be no more than 23 years - would bleed to death miserably. If he didn’t first choked on his own blood which slowly spread in his chest.  
"I need a scalpel and compresses." No one had expected that someone would try something else.  
"It's hopeless." One of the men objected and began to fill out the death certificate, although the patient was still alive and snapped for air full of panic. Matt didn’t care about the paramedics and gently pushed his hands into the abdomen of the patient. He could feel where it still throbbed and with enough tact he felt for even one of the larger holes in an artery. Time seemed to stand still as thousands of thoughts came to his mind at once and gave him enough information about the human body. If he could decompress the lungs and plug the holes, the man actually had a chance to survive. But it had to be quick.  
"Get me Captain Machard!" He ordered, weighing his chances. He wouldn’t let this man die.  
"We don’t have enough blood. Even if we stuff the wounds." One of the paramedics had gloves on and felt now along Matt's hands to the main damage.  
"Then he shall die in the knowledge that we have tried everything." Matt's fingers loosened as the other had taken over to plug the holes and turned to the chest.  
"We're wasting time." And yet, the paramedic didn’t let go of the injured blood vessels. Matt looked at him, raised his hands and took a step back. The medic followed his example.  
"We’ll give him morphine. There is more to do for us."  
Matt nodded and put a hand on the patient’s shoulder. It sparked a lot of emotions that he had never before felt so much. Despite all the previous struggles the sight made him even more angry. How could people do this their own kind? Why was a young man, almost a child, so mutilated and then left to die somewhere in the nowhere? His parents back home would learn that her son had died heroically. In the exercise of his duty. No one would tell them that he had bled to death because the doctors and paramedics had simply too much to do. The fact that his intestines had been shredded by a grenade when he wanted to bring his commander a morning coffee.  
A warm hand settled on his and Matt realized that he had been clutching in a metal table.  
"The war is shit."  
"How old are you?"  
"I'm going to be 22 years old in a week." The paramedic grimaced in a pained grin.  
"We should not fight."  
"And the civilians shouldn’t suffer because a son of a bitch thinks he would have to do shit."  
Matt smiled. He liked the young man. With bloodstained hands, he reached into his pockets and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.  
"I don’t smoke anyway." He said , holding out the precious commodity to the medic.  
"Standard ration, what? Thanks." Cigarettes changed hands and already hell broke loose again. A nurse came in and checked the pulse of the patient. He seemed to have died because she unceremoniously threw the lifeless body off the table, wiped briefly with a dirty cloth over it and made room for the paramedics who brought in the next patient. Three doctors were with him and Matt could hardly contain himself when he saw the badge on the uniform of the patient. The paramedic beside him took his hand and pulled him out of the room.  
"He had a simple flesh wound!" As soon as he had left the hospital, there was no holding back for Matt. That wasn’t even a logical way of thinking, it was just stupid.  
"He's a Major. Other rules apply to him." The medic explained with drooping shoulders and lit a cigarette.  
"That's not fair!"  
"Then go to the front. There you can decide who needs you the most. Over there, there are no more rules."  
Matt thought briefly of his unit.  
"My comrades are there. They fight."  
The paramedic looked at him and then smiled. "I 'm an only child. My mother died giving birth to my sister. Shortly thereafter, the small one died. If I had family or friends out there, I wouldn’t be here."  
The hint could not be clearer .  
"I need to go to them."  
The medic grinned and put on his helmet. He tugged adjusting his armband that distinguished him as a medic and then pointed to a nearby car.  
"I can take you with me, stranger."  
"My name is Matthew Smith."  
"Matthew? I'm Charlie, medic at the front. Welcome to the team, Matt."


	3. Chapter 3

The aircraft touched down slowly on to the landing. The engines had rumbled over the whole flight and the passengers were lulled into a pleasant sleep. Commanders and officers went through the ranks of soldiers who all had the same look in their eyes. No one had voluntarily left the foreign country that in the last year had become more like their home than it could ever be the land of their birth. They were all scrapped. Injured, marked forever, one limb less - sometimes two or even more. Matt closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He still had the photos in his hands. He and comrades. He and patients. The beautiful landscape. A football match with local children ... before the bomb hit and shredded the three small bodies, they took their life forever. They would never grow up to be a professional footballer. Never have children of their own ... A strong hand shook his shoulder. Major Machard smiled down at Matt. He had recently lost his right eye in a fight, but he still radiated the dignity and competence that Matt had impressed from day one.  
"We’re home, soldier. Go and kiss your girl."  
Matt forced a weak smile as he realized how hard it had become to breathe. Big tears rolled down his eyes as he realized for the first time that he was going home.  
"My girl doesn’t like kisses, Major. She favorites a liter of oil." He confessed, weeping and laughing at the same time. His supervisor was aware of Matt's career in civilian life and grinned.  
"Well, then you better bring her the best oil in the world, laddie!"  
They both laughed until the plane was safely on the runway and the pilot gave the signal to disembark. Getting up in orderly rows, if someone couldn’t walk, you carry him. The main thing is to get out of the plane. Away from the memories, away from the front. "Hey Smith? Is this your lady?"  
He squinted against the low sun of the afternoon and actually realized known forms. After another blink he saw at last the faces that he had missed for so long.  
Even before his bag had landed on the ground, he had already jumped through the air and landed on Rabbit. He didn’t care that the hard metal hurt his bones. He smelled, felt, sensed her. The person who would never die. He would never lose them and the others.  
"We've missed you too, Matt!" Rabbit chuckled and pressed the technician gently herself. While Hatchworth enlarged the hug, The Spine lifted Matt's bag off the ground.  
"The others are waiting in the car for you." He remarked and gave Matt a sincere smile. "Good to have you back in one piece, Matt."  
The man nodded and let them bring him to his friends in the parking lot.  
"What? You didn’t bring me a camel?" Steve was the first to pull Matt into a tight hug. Matt chuckled.  
"They didn’t give me one. But three ugly women!" He joked with him.  
"Cheeky lucky. We worry and you get women?" Michael was the second who demanded a hug.  
"I don’t think they have always been women." With a wink Matt kissed the hand of Annie.  
"Haven’t you looked?" She asked him with a smile and made him blush.  
"We should leave. Everyone is happy that you're back." The Spine threw Matt's bag in the trunk and climbed behind the wheel. The reinforced springs of the car caught his weight without problems and creaked very softly, as now the other boarded.  
"You've got a nice tan down there!" Steve tried to start a conversation, but Matt's head dropped against Michael's shoulder and he was asleep.  
"That's a good sign. He feels safe again." Were they wrong or sounded in Rabbits voice really clear compassion?  
"It’s time for him to come home." Replied Steve and looked at The Spine expectantly before he nodded and started the engine.  
"He has photos." Michael grabbed them curious, flipping through the images. Hatchworth stretched his neck to take a look at them, too.  
"It seems that he had a lot of fun there!" The robot exclaimed in surprise when he saw the photos of a laughing or drunken Matt. Matt posing in his uniform beside his comrades with a cheeky grin or looked proud from a camel back into the camera.  
"He is emaciated." Annie, quite the lady of the house was worried as she stroked Matt's shoulder.  
"The food was certainly disgusting." Joked Steve. "I told you that we should’ve send him a package from home!"  
"You wanted to send him unhealthy stuff." Annie was dead serious in this matter. Matt, since his employment, was her favorite and she took every opportunity to mother the young man. Especially since her own son devoted himself more and more of his determination or - typical for his age - women.  
"Hey, chips aren’t unhealthy." With a naughty grin Steve turned on the passenger seat to the rear.  
The heavy car turned into the driveway of the house as Michael woke his friend. Tired the returned soldier looked around and seemed to need a moment to know where he was.  
"Would you like to take a bath? Or maybe eat some food? You should get everything you want." Even now Annie was back at Matt's side and escorted him into the house.  
"I don’t know. Having a bath sounds good. Food too. Sleep."  
Rabbit leaned slightly to Matt. "There are burgers." She told him with a wink.  
"Food." The choice wasn’t too difficult under these conditions.


	4. Chapter 4

The young man rushed through the sand. His feet sank into the sand hills but he ran on. The hot air burned in his lungs and the sand was spread all over his sweaty body. His goggles had slipped down and dangled useless now around his neck and made breathing harder and harder. He had long lost his rifle somewhere. He allowed himself a brief glance at his pursuers before he stumbled and fell down head over the sand dune. The hard grains of sand gave only little way when his unprotected skin scraped over them. Blood mixed with sand and dirt. A stone slowed his fall and he cracked his forehead on it. Blind with blood and dust, he tried to pull himself up but it was too late. A feeling of panic blocked out all other thoughts when he felt the gun barrel to his back. Fall, turn, pull through. The exercises in the camp had been so easy. But what should he do now? Would training be enough? And if not, what were the alternatives except a certain death? The force of gravity pulled him down to his knees as he reached for the knife at his ankles. The rotation of the whole body made it easy to draw the blade across the throat of the attacker. For an awfully long second Matt thought he had lost the fight. He barely managed to close his eyes before the blood of the other man hit him. The foreign soldier opened his eyes incredulous. The metal of his assault rifle fell with a soft sound to the ground as he raised his hands to his throat and tried in vain to stop the bleeding. Stunned Matt stared at him. His face was covered in blood that was not his own and he still held the knife so tight in his hand that his knuckles turned white. The injured man fell limp to the ground. Helpless, he groped about in the sand and looked for help or something familiar which would give him hope of a rescue. For humanity Matt squatted beside the man and took his hand. Only seconds before it had been a fight to the death and now death had chosen his victim and was ready to demand it. The hands of the soldier were warm and browned and formed a contrast to Matt's cold and pale fingers. Should he apologize for the injury and death of the other? Shouldn’t he try to save him? The whistling of the radio tore Matt back to reality and he realized that the stranger's hand lay lifeless in his.  
"Team Cephalos! Come, Team Cephalos! Speak up, damn it!"  
With numb fingers Matt reached for the radio and held it to his mouth. He spat in the sand to get the last grains of sand out of his mouth and then pressed the talk button.  
"Private Smith. Team Cephalos no longer exists."  
Silence answered him. He imagined the commander how stunned he stared at the radio, trying to get a meaning out of these words.  
"Talk directly, Private." Finally the command came.  
"It was a goddamn trap! They're all dead! And I would have been too a few seconds ago!" Tears ran down on Matt’s sandy cheeks and he felt a familiar feeling.  
"Come back to the camp, Private." Matt let go of the talk button and vomited. Trembling, he groped back to the switch.  
"Sir, I have no idea where I am." And then everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5

With a scream Matt woke up from his dreams and just made it to the bathroom, where he vomited and fell to his knees in front of the toilet. The fever which he had developed still in the camp a few days ago was seemingly back to haunt him again. When he splashed cold water on his face, he noticed a lump in the abdomen.  
"Seriously?" He muttered before he used the toilet a second time.  
"You can’t stand the diet change." Steve's voice sounded from Matt's room. Only after Matt stuck his head out of the bathroom, he actually saw his friend and colleague. Steve looked like he'd just fallen out of bed. The short shorts and a too large shirt that he wore as pajamas were rumpled and in Steve's hand dangled a small plush dragon which they had given him a few years ago.  
"I didn’t mean to wake you." Matt was ashamed of his weakness and how it affected the others.  
"They all say that." Steve smiled sleepily and shook Matt's bedcover. Wordlessly, he then climbed into the prepared bed and yawned.  
"If you kick me out of bed, I'll throw you out the window." He threatened laughing and patting the free side of the bed next to him. Thankfully, Matt crawled next to him on the bed.  
"Do you really think that it was the burger?" He asked sheepishly.  
"I know it. Do you remember when I was once in India and came back? Wow, I didn’t leave the toilet for days!"  
Giggling Matt recalled frightful three days in which no one had envied Steve.  
"Sometimes it's a good thing if the toilet and sink are next to each other." Steve concluded and snuggled deeper into the blankets. Matt was undecided about what to do now. Sure, he had shared a bed a thousand times with Steve or someone else. But did Steve know what he was getting into? A strong hand grabbed Matt in the neck and pulled him to Steve.  
"I get a cold back if you sit around there any longer." Steve mumbled already half asleep. Matt smiled and let himself pulled only too happy. Tired, he pulled the covers up and over him. Then he put an arm snugly around Steve and leaned his face against the broad back of his friend. Even in this position Matt seemed to hear Steve's heartbeat. And with that sound he finally fell asleep.

A wet washcloth brushed his face. A soft, muffled laughter sounded in his ears. And despite everything, he stretched and yawned comfortably and extended.  
"So you still don’t have any reflexes." Steve said firmly. The washcloth had been a wet towel which was now in Steve’s hand.  
"If I hadn’t already smelled your skunk stink, you would be pressed against the wall by now, face front." Retorted Matt and yawned again. Steve's laughter was loud and hearty.  
"Okay, first you need a large cup of coffee." Only now Matt realized what he had just said and he threw a pillow at Steve.  
"You know what I mean!" He chuckled a little and sat up in bed.  
"That you're keen on me?" The pillow came flying back.  
"How old are you two again?" Rabbit grinned broadly as she entered the room. "I have cooked a soup for you." She said proudly as she handed the tray with a soup to Matt. It smelled and the man grimaced.  
"Thank you, Rabbit..." With an uneasy feeling in the stomach Matt tried his liquid breakfast very careful. After all, it didn’t taste burnt. On the contrary!  
"This tastes really good!" Already he grabbed the bread and Steve pushed past Rabbit over to the bed and dipped his finger into the soup to taste. If robots could blush, Rabbit would have been certainly bright red. Embarrassed, she giggled.  
"I'm learning to cook."  
"Without taste?" Matt was more than surprised.  
"I cook exactly according to the recipe and what they show me. And then someone tastes and seasons." Rabbit seemed incredible to be proud of herself. And rightly so, Matt thought in amazement.  
"What else can you do? Pancakes?" Steve's eyes went wide in the hope of his daily favorite breakfast.  
"Soups. And meat. It's easy! Boil it and then touch it. And then it's perfect!"  
"Then I would like to have good piece of meat for lunch." Matt was watched with an unreadable look of Rabbit. Would he have to bet his choice would fall on concern and a reprimand.  
"You get a diet, says the doctor. Steve said that you can’t stand the food. So there is soup and fruit for you."  
And again flew the pillow and this time it hit Steve in the face.


	6. Chapter 6

His heart was racing, his boots echoed through the streets of the quickly evacuated city. Actually it was more of a village, if one looked at the ruins as houses. Slowly he pushed himself to one block and looked at his comrades. The commander signaled the commands. They would swarm, secure homes and if possible take prisoners. Ready, go! Matt pulled the goggles in the face and nodded to his men. With a cocked gun and his finger on the trigger he stormed off into the unknown. Fire, Smoke, dead animals, dead and mangled people. Somewhere on the streets echoed shots, isolated and rare. There had to be a sniper, who had the soldiers targeted. They would have to be more careful than usual.  
"Smith." A scout pointed to the empty street. A child, maybe 4 or 5 years old stood there in free trajectory for every idiot who thought he would have to prove it. Irritated Matt made a gesture so that the child would run away but she shook her head vehemently, pointing quietly on the floor. The soldiers looked at each other helplessly. Why wouldn’t this stupid child run into the security of a ruin? Where were the parents of the child? And why was it pointing on the ground? What did she call now to the soldiers in the foreign language? The sergeant knew a little of the local language and went pale.  
“Landmine." He translated flatly.  
Something in Matt's stomach turned. This child had a fucking life ahead of her! Why was it even here? No one deserved that! Which cursed son of a bitch had placed a goddamn land mine on the road?  
"She's as old as Angelique." One of the soldiers who had a daughter at that age was staring now with tearful eyes on the innocent child.  
"The bomb disposal team is 150 kilometers away. They won’t come here fast enough. Go on, the backup is too important." The radio operator, who succinctly had described the situation to the headquarters, told the unit their new orders.  
"I won’t let a fucking child die here!" The Sergeant, the highest-ranking soldier in the group, shook his head over such a stupid command.  
"I'll stay with the child. Go on and continue. I'm waiting for the bomb experts." Matt hadn’t thought before he spoke. Only when he saw the looks of his comrades it dawned upon him. But he didn’t take it back but secured his weapon and slipped it into the holster.  
"You don’t have to do that, Smith."  
Matt took a deep breath and nodded. "I have no family at home. No children or a wife are waiting for me."  
His comrades found out now that Matt was right. Everyone of them had a wife and children. Everyone except Matt.  
"Free decision. Scott, report it to the headquarters."  
The operator nodded and spoke the command into the phone without hesitation. The sergeant turned back to Matt. "I'll come with you and talk to the child."  
A shot echoed through the silence and something hit Matt in the face. The air was forced from his lungs and he found himself on the ground. His ears were ringing and he could hardly see anything because his goggles were full of dirt.  
"Sniper!" Instinctively, he crawled into the shade of a half brick wall.  
"The fucker shot the little girl!" Full of hate and anger the soldier with the daughter stood up behind the wall and returned fire in the smoke.  
“Cease fire! You won’t hit anything out there!"  
Matt heard nothing else. Wordlessly, he stared at the child's hand, which was still clinging to a teddy bear.


	7. Chapter 7

"Come, I'll help you. I can’t watch it!" Michael attacked Matt’s bag without waiting for a reply and pulled out the contents. Clothes fell next to photos and books.  
"What of it can be washed?" Steve rummaged through the pile and grabbed the dirtiest clothes. Matt pushed the other stuff to him and nodded gratefully. He had something in his hand disappear, but this hadn’t gone unnoticed among his friends.  
"If it is disagreeable to you, you can also do this alone." Michael offered.  
Matt looked at him and dropped his eyes.  
"I don’t want to burden you." He finally admitted and was hit by a dirty shirt in the face. When he pulled the cloth from his field of vision, he saw Steve grin.  
"Listen, we're buddies. And we have really missed you. We wanted to question you about everything but the bots said that we should leave you alone. We want to know everything, if you want to talk about it. We're worried about you, Matt. No matter what's going on."  
Silently the photos were placed on the bed.  
"I’ll be downstairs getting a bit of sleep." Quietly Matt crept out of the room while Michael and Steve grabbed the pictures.  
"These are very different." Remarked Michael. What had seemed happy living on the photos of Matt from the car, turned into an image of horror. In the photos the entire range of the war was apparent. Wounded and bleeding men, Matt with a thick bandage on his head or a bandaged torso, the smoldering remains of a market.  
"Look." Despite the horror, Steve smiled at one of the pictures and handed it to Michael. Matt was seen in full regalia, surrounded by local children. He proudly held up a tattered football in his hand and laughed as did the children.  
Another photo showed Matt with an unconscious or sleeping woman in a dirty hut. Apparently he had helped at birth because he was defiled with blood, but with tears of joy in the eyes held a roaring baby in his arms.  
Michael gave Steve a stack of other images. On the backs of the photos were death dates. Comrades, locals, even a small dog were the motives.  
"What else can we do, Steve? I don’t want to press him, but I can’t sleep because I lay awake worrying. Do you know what traumas soldiers can have?" Michael's eyes clearly reflected his concern.  
"Mike, we can make it. Matt isn’t stupid. He has left us his photos. If he wants to talk, we're there. If not, then we have to live with it. But if he needs us, we need to be there. We owe him. Do you remember his work here? He was always the silent, hard-working helper. He was always beside us and helped us. Now it's our turn."  
Michael gulped and nodded. Steve was right.  
"Besides, you also have other work to do." Peter VI was leaning against the door frame and looked at the two technicians.  
"Our work doesn’t suffer, if we care about our friend."  
"Mr. Reed, he wanted to go to war. I have shown him alternatives, but he stuck with it." Peter spoke the words with a hard voice and gave Michael so a verbal slap in the face for his rebellion.  
"He has become a paramedic and has helped many people! He has done it to raise the reputation of Walter Robotics after we all refused to go to this war. The dirty campaign from our competition wasn’t great for us. And if you’re not here, but chasing your own adventures of self-pity then that's not Matt's problem!" Steve's eyes shone with rage as he spoke the words.  
"You can pack up your stuff and leave if you don’t it like here.” Without further ado, Peter turned around and left two stunned employees back.  
With open mouth and big eyes, the two stared at each other.


	8. Chapter 8

Slowly and gently he stroked the woman's hair from her forehead. A shy smile was seen on his lips and he felt the blood in his cheeks. She looked at him curiously with her big brown eyes and smiled as shy as he had. He laughed a little as he tried to speak with her and she didn’t understand a word. Then she tried it and he didn’t understand. The silence of the night was only disturbed by their chuckles. The single candle in the hut let her face shine and Matt wasn’t sure if he sat opposite of an angel. An Angel with velvety skin and a gentleness that he missed so much. She said something in her melodious native language and stroked his cheek. He hadn’t had to speak the language to recognize the promise within these words. Touched and unable to say anything, he took her hand in his and kissed her gently on the cheek.

"Matt!" His name out of her mouth still left him dizzy. With a broad grin, he wiped the engine oil from the face and waved her.  
"It should run again. I know too well these damned screws, they are vulnerable. Go to the shop and get new ones." He explained to the soldier whose jeep he had repaired before he strolled over to the young woman. She giggled and took the dirty cloth from his hand. She gently rubbed the last dirt from his face and then kissed him lovingly. He returned the kiss as well and could no longer restrain himself. High-spirited he pulled her into his arms and distributed the dirt from his uniform on her dress. Giggling, she pushed him away and scolded him jokingly for this improper conduct. He nodded and felt properly ashamed for a few seconds before he looked at her with big pleading eyes what she answered with a new laughter. But then she began to cry when he took the little box out of a pocket and knelt before her.

Tired, he staggered into the hut and tried to take off the shoes. When he almost lost his balance, a strong hand grabbed his arm and held him. He wondered briefly why the father of his wife would visit them so late in the night when he heard the whimpering. Immediately his instincts kicked in and he ran into the small bedroom that they shared. His wife, her mother and two aunts took any place. Sweating and trembling, the young woman pressed as a new contraction started. Matt acted without reflection. With simple words of their language, he told her to go on. The aunts he sent to fetch water and clean towels.  
Three hours later, Matt held his beautiful little daughter in his arms and posed for the camera. He would never be separated from his little family anymore. He would take her back to his home and introduce her to his friends. They would look so stupid if he came back with the love of his life and the coronation of their love.

It smelled hearty after grilled meat and Matt realized just now how great his appetite was. After a day of exploring with his troops he was completely done and just wanted to eat something, give his daughter a kiss and go to sleep with his wife.  
"I'm home!" he called as he entered the hut. The stranger stared at him wordlessly. No one responded. Then a tortured scream from the kitchen. Blood sprayed into the hallway and the scream was transformed into a disgusting bubbling. Matt stood where he was. The shock paralyzed him.  
"Whore!" He didn’t need more explanation from the two men who now came out of the kitchen and pulled up their pants. A single soldier against three attackers, but the hatred was clearly felt when the men silently walked past Matt and left the house. Heavy footsteps led Matt into the bedroom where his daughter lay in the crib he built with a slit belly. The covers of the little one were drenched in blood. They rustled a little when Matt took his daughter out of the crib, concluded in his arms and walked into the kitchen with her. Mechanically and without an emotion he covered the nakedness of his abused wife. He put the little corpse in the arms of the disgraced woman whose blood still flowed slowly across the kitchen table. In an unreal silence Matt sewed the wounds of his two beloved humans and wrapped them in white cloths according with their religion. The gasoline for the generator was quickly found and Matt wondered about how fast the hut was in flames. He would have to worry about the burnt remains. The people here built new huts out of everything. That was life. And perhaps the remains of his family would later be the fertile soil for a large tree. Maybe a cypress as his wife had loved them so much. Yes, he would do that. He would plant a cypress here instead of a grave stone.


	9. Chapter 9

"I can’t still believe he really said that." The Spine had listened to the two men's words, but still doubted the truth of the response given.  
"That's what he really said, Spine. I was there." Michael shook his head in disbelief.  
"Peter is at present under great pressure. He surely is only worried about Matt." Rabbit said.  
"He let me go!" Steve could hardly contain himself, pointing to his packaged stuff. "I'm leaving. I don’t want to have nothing to do with a bastard like this!"  
"Steve, you’re staying here. If it was really like this, then I 'll talk to Peter. He certainly has his reasons to say such a thing." As always The Spine was the voice of reason.  
"Do what you have to do. But if he really thinks like this, then I find it also hard to stay." Still Michael had not decided whether he should stay or go.  
"What is it?" Matt had entered the shop and went to his workplace.  
"Peter says, you're to blame." Steve said irritably.  
"And he's right. It was my decision to go there. He wanted to dissuade me and I declined his help." Although Matt spoke softly it sounded final.  
"He fired me, Matt. Because I finally told him that he isn’t here the time he should be here."  
"Then that's his decision, Steve. I can’t do anything."  
All pairs of eyes turned to Matt's back.  
"Matt?" Rabbit didn’t trust the data she was receiving. Had the man actually said that?  
"No! It is enough, Rabbit! I’ll just simply do my job here. Steve goes, that's not great, but it's not my decision. Peter is young and just after the accident I can understand his behavior." Despite the violence of his words, Matt still didn’t turn but pushed seemingly random tools on his desk. Steve took a breath to shout at his colleague but Rabbit held up a hand.  
"Please leave us alone." She begged and slowly approached Matt. She had realized that Matt wasn’t feeling so well and wanted to know why.  
"Whatever. Maybe you bring him to his senses!" Steve grumbled and trudged out of the workshop, followed by Michael and The Spine.  
"Steve, shut your mouth. Bring your things back to your room and get down a bit." The Spine used his special tone of voice very rarely, but this time he found it appropriate in order to defuse the mood.  
"We can’t let one of you go involuntarily. Matt has certainly been through a lot and I won’t deny that. But you have no idea how it is at war. You don’t know how to react when you have seen it all."  
"But you as piece of metal know it?"  
Icy silence.  
"Spine, I'm sorry. That wasn’t fair." Steve said clearly ashamed for his outburst.  
"We’ll talk about it later, Steve. Please bring your stuff back up to your room." Despite the apology, the words hadn’t missed their mark.  
"Come, I'll help you." Michael took one of the heavier bags and dragged it toward the stairs. The Spine turned around and wondered if it was wise to enter the studio again.  
Rabbit and Matt were still standing in front of his workplace. She didn’t dare to touch the fragile human in front of her for fear of breaking him permanently. He woke unpleasant memories in her, made her laugh with anecdotes and tore her metal heart apart with his experiences.  
The Spine had entered the working room of the sixth Peter and built himself up in front of the inventor.  
"Steve wants to leave the house. And you know why." That seemed to be the most direct way to get answers.  
"I won’t let him question my authority by behavior like this." Peter didn’t even look up from his notes.  
"Look at me when I 'm talking to you. You're not the first Walter with whom I 'm talking, Peter. I respect you, so I also want respect from you, at least look at me when you speak to me."  
With an annoyed groan, the young man threw the pen on the table and stared at the robot in front of him.  
"Happy?" Only now The Spine recognized that something dropped out from under the mask. He immediately regretted his harsh tone and crouched down beside the young man whom he had seen grow up.  
"Peter , what's wrong? You're usually not like this."  
"I don’t want anything here! I want to get out of here, you know!” The Spine nodded. Peter had more than once spoken to him about it.  
"Of course. But no one holds you here, Peter. Your mother, we'll manage. You don’t have to do this. But you are unfair to the people who like to work here."  
"People who question every decision I make. Reed and Negrete, they only nag! Everything I say to them is called into question."  
Surprised by this confession The Spine stood up again.  
"Examples." He asked seriously.  
"I wanted an upgrade for you and they shredded them in the air."  
"Next."  
"I want to build more robots. As every Walter before me. And they complain that they have enough work with you!"  
"Is that all?"  
"They say that I have no idea and should keep out of their work. I want to invent something and they tell me to just shut up and disappear from their workshops."  
The Spine sighed. So that was the problem.


	10. Chapter 10

The package still smelled despite the long journey wonderfully of cookies. Matt had just come out of the shower and stole one of the home-made biscuits of Charlie's girlfriend.  
"Smith, you bastard! These are mine!!" The paramedic playfully tried to steal the cookie back from his comrade.  
"It was yours!" But Matt froze in his movements as he saw a package lying on his place. Surprised, he looked at the carelessly wrapped package and frowned when he saw the sender.  
"Well, did your lover send you sexy underwear?" Charlie teased him with a laugh as he walked over to Matt and handed a knife to him to open the package.  
"This is from my boss." With numb fingers Matt opened the package with the offered knife and pushed the cardboard apart.  
"Holy shit." Charlie called together the other soldiers and stared in disbelief in the package. "Your boss is sick!!"  
But Matt remained calm and even smiled. "That's Rabbits new face plate. He had long plans with it." He said as he pulled the metal face of the package and looked at it in the afternoon sun by the window.  
"Freak." Slowly the comrades scattered again, the first shock made way for the boredom.  
"And you do that when you're not here?" Charlie stared at the metal and handed Matt a cookie.  
"You don’t understand. This is unique. It's beautiful. I wonder if Michael has forged it or Steve. Just look at how detailed it is. And how carefully the cables are connected. Rabbit finally has a full-featured face. And it's so beautiful."  
His friend snorted , stifling a giggle. A letter appeared in front of Matt's face.  
"He even sends you a love letter "

"I didn’t know that you're so talented, Pete. That's a miracle!"  
"I put much effort in it."  
"Fuck the effort. For this you need skill! If you show that to Michael and Steve, they will surely think differently from you."  
"I will only be respected if I'm better than them?"  
"Either you are the friend and encourage it or you're the boss and show them what you can and expect. That's bad, but necessary. Mike grew up with the fact that his family has a safe workplace. And Steve’s isn’t different."  
"You're not like that."  
"I'm new at work."  
"How are you?"  
"Better. With the drugs, I can sleep through the night."  
"No more nightmares?"  
" Pete, please. They won’t vanish for a long time. Especially with Sharya and..."  
"I wish I was with you."  
"No, you don’t."  
"You can end it at any time, Matt."  
"I know."

"Smith?" Matt looked out of his hiding and grinned broadly when Frank offered him a sandwich. He gratefully accepted it and took a bite.  
"You bastard!" He exclaimed as he bit next to the sausage into something disgusting. Frank doubled over in laughter and a little further away Matt heard the laughter of his comrades. With the thought of revenge, he shoveled together some dirt and threw it against Frank. This just laughed even more as the dust was gone with the wind.  
"This is revenge!" Matt swore with an evil grin, which was interrupted by his own laughter.


	11. Chapter 11

Rabbit was the last of the robots. She looked curiously through the hall of wires and even discovered creatures that she hadn’t seen for years.  
"Then we are now complete." The Spine began the meeting.  
"Why are we here? Where are the others?" A vacuum cleaner asked which was known to everyone as Eddie since his name Edward Johann Siegmund Richard of Vacuum was just too long.  
"We are here to discuss about the latest happenings in the house. You wanted more say, here you have it." The Spine let them hear clearly what he thought of some of the assembled machines.  
"And what's currently up to?" Something that might once have been the prototype of a washing machine rattled the door while it spoke.  
"We all know that the technician Matthew Smith was in the war and came back a week ago. In addition, the technician Steve Negrete was dismissed. Peter feels not taken seriously by him and Mr. Reed."  
Qwerty pushed his screen in the middle of the round and made a sad emoticon. Rabbit patted the screen compassionate.  
"And what is that to us? In this terrible guy Steve I am even quite agree with the chief. He treated us terribly!" began an iron.  
"Just as you deserve it?" The roar grew louder after The Spine’s statement.  
"We are machines. Most of us didn’t even have a way to express their opinion before this meeting. These people have changed a lot. Not everything is good, I admit. But the good outweighs the bad, or not?" Eddie seemed to approach the whole thing diplomatic.  
"They are always nice. Unless you're mean to them! And you're often enough!" Hatchworth pointed to the iron. He and it often had had enough controversy as how to iron a shirt properly before a Walter Girl had taken over this task.  
"This is about the future! No matter how they were; when the house collapses, it affects us all." The Spine moved his fedora and tried to calm down. The arrogance of some equipment irritated him. Why didn’t they think logically about the consequences?  
Approving murmur was heard.  
"But who are we to do anything? We are home appliances. You could change anything, but I think you don’t know what. That’s why we are here, right?" Eddie seemed to enjoy this a bit too much.  
"Right. We have experienced many crises. But that borders on madness. There were wars and all that. But a family that is broken?"  
Rabbit stepped lightly into the middle of the machines. When she cleared her throat unnecessarily, no sound was heard from them.  
"We need each of you for it. This is, how my brother said, about the future of us all. And not only that! It 's about the people who have made us what we are now. Cecilia, Matt was always with you if you had problems." The addressed computer beeped in agreement. "Elonore, wasn’t it Michael who gave you his voice so you can tell him what's wrong?" One of disused household robot nodded. "Hugo, Steve has kept you from scrap metal." The rusty but neat metal butler bowed his head and stroked almost tenderly over the bandana, which he had been given by Steve. "Chip, hadn’t Peter always reprogrammed an upgrade for you, so that it is good to you?" The needle printer grunted and printed a clear yes on a sheet of paper. Rabbit said nothing and waited for a reaction from the others.  
"Michael has always taken good care of my backups."  
"Steve has always made sure that I only get the good oil."  
"Matt has built my new arms!"  
"Peter always listens to all my concerns and improved them if he can."  
More and more voices were loud and slowly it dawned on everyone that the humans perhaps weren’t so bad.  
"How can we help?"  
Rabbit smiled, wondering once more about the elegance with which she could use her new face plates. "That won’t be easy." She warned her friends and then spread her plan with which she wanted to save the welfare of the family.


	12. Chapter 12

A firm handshake then Peter pulled him into a hug. Worried, he loosened his grip as Matt winced and sucked the air sharply in between his teeth.  
"What 's going on?" He asked, eyeing the soldier.  
"Broken ribs. Our trek was bombed when we wanted to move patients to the capital." With a calm smile Matt added. "It wasn’t that bad. I hit a stupid edge as the car lurched."  
Without waiting for another word, the young inventor pulled the shirt of his friend up and looked at the dark purple spots.  
"You have become thin." He remarked and stroked the discolored skin.  
"And you have cold fingers."  
A shared chuckle was the confession of an intimate moment between them.  
"Do you get enough to eat?" Peter wanted to know and heaved his heavy traveling bag on the table.  
"I barely have time to eat. I’m either on duty or too tired." Matt reached into the bag and took out a packet of biscuits. With practiced fingers he opened the package and briefly enjoyed the scent of the biscuits.  
"You should pay more attention to you."  
"And you shouldn’t fly into a war zone with a damn private plane only to visit one of your technicians."  
"I don’t visit you, Matt. I take care of loyal soldiers with food."  
Matt snorted, laughed and got crumbles on his shirt from the newly bitten cookie.  
"How are the others?"  
Peter wiped some sweat from under the mask and shook his head resignedly.  
"Still think they are the best of the best."  
"They’ve grown up with you, Peter. They don’t know you as a boss."  
"What should I do? Fire them?"  
"For example." Matt ate the second biscuit and looked at his friend across the table.  
"You know I can’t, Matt."  
"If it doesn’t hit them that you're the boss, then they should go. And believe me they aren’t so stupid to do that."  
"And what if they do?"  
"Then I have to search new friends. But seriously, Pete, you have to be the boss. Sure, it's not easy. Do take us as an example. I am really thankful to you for your help here. But when I am home again, I'm your employee. Despite everything that has happened here."  
Something in Peter's attitude changed and Matt wanted to already dismiss it as imagination as a hand was laid on his.  
"And if I don’t want this?"  
Silently Matt looked at the man before him . His face was obscured by the mask and even if not, he wasn’t sure if it was just a bad joke.  
"What if I want to stay your friend, Matt?"  
This question surprised him even more than the previous one.  
"But we're friends. That will never change. But you're just my boss. And I have to respect that." Was that the answer which he wanted of Matt?  
"Yes, you probably have to do that. Just like me." Disappointment was now clearly audible. Matt frowned.  
"Why have you given Sharya's face to Rabbit?" The question now burned him for some time on the tongue.  
"I thought you'd be pleased."  
"I don’t know if I can do that, Peter."  
"We can change it. But Rabbit likes it."  
"Didn’t you think about me? How it would be to see the face of my dead wife every day?"  
"All the time I was only thinking about you, you jerk!"  
Frustrated, Peter did sink back into the chair from which he had sprung. Matt snorted frustrated and took a sip of water from his canteen.  
"It's better if I go." The remaining contents of the bag were emptied on the table and Matt was surprised that Peter had really brought him all his favorite sweets from home.  
"I'm an idiot, huh? I'm not good at something. I have lost a wife and a child, Peter."  
Again, he was pulled into a hug, which turned out very gently this time because of his ribs.  
"And I 'm there if you want. It's not a constraint, you goof. I even don’t know what it actually is with me and you."


	13. Chapter 13

The tension in the house had continued to grow. No one of the four humans still spoke directly to each other. If it was really necessary, then the robots had been abused as messengers.  
"Go and tell him yourself!" Hatchworth folded his arms and looked at Michael challengingly.  
"I 'm going to do a fuck and talk to Peter."  
"Then you're out of luck."  
"Hatchy, what's going on? Are the others mean to you?"  
"Stop it right there. I'm not a little kid and you should grow up, too." Michael staggered back, startled by the bronze robot and stared at him.  
"Yes, quite right. I've had enough of your bickering and the others. We refuse to be your messengers." Hatchworth was still a bit unsure to strike against his friend in such a common sound, but Rabbit had told him that it was the best for the humans.  
"Whatever. Then I tell him right in the face what I think of him. Better?"  
Hatchworth turned without a word and left the workshop. He really cared how Michael treated him or his other friends and he felt bad to pursue this plan. Even if it was necessary.

"Move your ass." Rabbit had less problems with commanding Steve. Surprised, the man did what she wanted and left his office.  
"You're going to apologize to Petes! And you'll be nice."  
Here the man bucked and stopped. Slowly he turned to Rabbit and gave her a dirty look.  
"That's what this is about? Forget it! He was the first to talk shit about Matt, not me!"  
"I don’t care. You'll give him your hand in peace!" Rabbit told him with an equally evil eye. And she could look very nasty.  
"No."  
"Peter wasn’t chasing girls or something stupid like this. He has made my face all by himself! And when he was gone, he was with Matt and has brought him candy! So you behave according to your age or I’ll make you."  
Speechless Steve stared at her with his mouth open. He was silent all the way through the corridors to Peter's office.

The Spine smiled and wiggled his toes. Matt smiled at the simple joy of the robot and stood up.  
"You're done." He announced unnecessarily.  
"Thank you, Matt. That's very kind of you." With practiced movements The Spine put the socks and shoes back on.  
"Why does Rabbit’s face make you sad? Because it looks like your dead wife?" The Spine knew how tactless and unprovoked mean he was and it broke his heart nearly as he saw Matt stagger and stumble. With a flick he pushed the man against a chair on which he fell. Pale and trembling, he sat there and fought back tears.  
"Her name was Sharya, wasn’t it? What was your daughter’s name?" Oil pooled on his photoreceptors and he wiped it away hastily.  
"Nouvy." Alone to pronounce this name cost Matt any self-control he had. He was short of breath and his eyes burned with tears.  
"A beautiful name. She would certainly have been as pretty as her mother."  
The Spine exhaled in relief when Matt broke out in a heart-rending howl. That was the worst thing he ever had to do, even his war years in mind. Gently but firmly he pulled Matt into a hug and let the man cry. He even wanted to ban his own crying in order to keep Matt's hair clean, but while the man slowly, sobbing quietly in his arms, laid bare all his experiences, The Spine noticed that the resistance didn’t make a difference. The oil ran from alone down his cheeks. He could almost feel how Matt collapsed in his arms under the weight of memories and processed them slowly. He knew from personal experience that some memories never disappeared, that even after years of a smell or a sound was enough to bring someone to the brink of despair. He gently stroked the man’s back and hummed a tune that came to his mind. And only when Matt fell asleep in his arms from exhaustion and threatened to fall off the chair, he lifted the young man on his arms and carried him to his room.


	14. Chapter 14

Peter had listened to Steve's apology surprised. It was not until the technician wanted to praise his work on Rabbit’s face, he stopped him.  
"I don’t want praise, Steve. I want your respect. I am your boss, whether you want it or not. And if I can only get your respect like this, then I do it." He said irritably. His anger rose as Steve grinned at him cheekily.  
"Yesterday you shat in diapers and now this, huh?" But then Steve's face became serious and he admitted some papers from a chair to sit down. "We have failed you. Dude, we know each other since we were little kids. Do you remember how we stole Mike’s pacifier and he went crying to his mother? God, it's hard to see you like this, Pete. It makes me sad to see you grown up, man." And actually Steve sagged under the memory and shook his head. "We didn’t respect you as a technician but as a boss. You're the man of the theory, we thought. Yes, we felt better, even smarter than you. But when you said those things about Matt I realized how fucked up things were between us now and it just blew my fuses. Matt is like a little brother to me and you ... "  
"I've changed."  
Surprised by this self-assessment Steve nodded.  
"And how! From the little shit to a man ... look at you! You scratch your behind and already you're making five new machines, one better than the other."  
"You're jealous?" Now it was Peter’s turn to be surprised.  
"And how! We carry out your plans, Pete. And they are awesome! We ... well, we thought that we as a humans would be better at least than you are. With Matt and such. And then you pop us the fucking truth in the face, because it is also your job, yes."  
"Besides, you were never there when we wanted to talk to you."  
Michael had entered the study, half pushed by Rabbit.  
"I was ..." Peter seriously considered whether he should tell the truth to his friends. How would they react? Would they be mad at him that he had not taken them with him?  
"He was with Matt." Steve said, looking sadly at Michael. "The whole time he was with him."  
The second engineer was silent, but his face spoke volumes.  
"I didn’t want to discourage you from work. And you shouldn’t worry. It was a shithole over there."  
"Yes, we have seen photos ." Steve understood the reasons of his friend although not yet complete, but he began to better understand the backgrounds.  
Still, Michael had not said anything and now sat down on a chair covered with papers. Wordlessly, he stared at Peter. This replied calmly the look behind the mask. The first impulse came again from Michael. He stood up and took the crumpled papers from the chair. Then he sat back down and started staring again.  
"Say something!" Steve was always the first to lose his nerve in such situations.  
"What is there to say?" Michael wanted to know. His tone was kept neutral and his face was hard to read.  
"Something." Steve pleaded with him.  
"There's nothing more to say, Steve. We were idiots ..." With a glance at Peter, Michael added: "All of us."  
The inventor nodded. He knew he had made a mistake, but if he had the choice again, he would do it again the same way.


	15. Chapter 15

"Smith, pack your stuff. You’re going home."  
Matt looked up in surprise from his rifle, which he had just been freed from the desert sand.  
"Back home, sir?" He asked. His time had indeed expired, but still soldiers were needed at the front and he didn’t plan to leave.  
"Order by a certain Mr. Walter." Matt knew the military power of the family. Even if they no longer produced robots for war, Walter Robotics delivered important equipment for the military and was also involved in the supply of home-coming invalids.  
"Sir, I can stay if I'm needed." Gunfire echoed through the camp, then the cry of a captured attacker.  
"We’ve got enough supplies and soldiers, Smith. It's time to go home." Major Machard, freshly promoted, sat down next to Matt and poked him in the shoulder.  
"Isn’t it strange? At first I wanted to go home and now it horrifies me."  
The Major shrugged. "I will come home with you. My eye is lost and it won’t come back. My wife has a new husband. My son has almost finished college."  
Matt chuckled. He had a good life back home, he knew.  
"And you?" The Major looked at him and smiled a little.  
"I don’t know. I have left my friends to go to war. I was wounded and have saved dozens of lives. There I am a technician, if not just an assistant. Here I am doing something." It was hard for him to pack his feelings into words but to his surprise his superior nodded.  
"That's a shitty feeling, huh? But I know that somewhere in our homeland a new future for both of us is waiting. I’ll find a new wife and you'll have enough to do. Maybe you are developing new things with the lessons learned here, like something the guys here can use to protect themselves from dying."  
"A bottle of beer that won’t go stale."Matt suggested with a grin. Machard laughed his trademark throaty laugh and slapped Matt on the back.  
"That's the attitude that I always wanted to see in my soldiers."

"You bring me home?"  
"Hate me for it."  
"Why?"  
"Your year in operation is over."  
"I have patients and friends here."  
"I miss you."  
Matt stared for a moment at the wall, wondering how he should react. Should he hang up the phone? Should he answer this simple statement honest? Maybe he should be silent like he did it now?  
"Matt?"  
He pulled himself together and decided to tell the truth.  
"I miss you too, Pete. But it's hard to disappear here. To go home as if nothing had ever happened."  
"I understand that. But your place is here. Here you can do a lot more. Maybe we expand the medical sector. You could develop prostheses and the like."  
The idea appealed to Matt, but something in his heart called him to see reason.  
"I can’t leave here."  
"Because of your family?"  
His silence should be enough to say, while he cursed and hated himself for his weakness wiping with his sleeve across his eyes.  
"You have nothing of them other than the memories, Matt. Nothing keeps you there. We’ll build them a proper grave here. You can mourn, that's not a bad thing. But if you stay there, you’ll lose everything Sharya has ever loved about you. You are the technician, the one telling jokes that aren’t funny, the guy next door with the captivating smile. You're not the embittered soldier, Matt, and I beg you not to become that."


	16. Chapter 16

It felt divine. The sheets were incredibly soft and the pillows wrapped around the back of his head, so that he never wanted to get up again.  
"Good morning, Matt. How do you feel?"  
The Spine had quietly entered the room and gave the young man a tray with a hearty breakfast.  
"Had the best sleep since a few months." A bit it surprised him and he took the tray on his lap. "I guess it had to be?" He didn’t mention what he meant. The Spine sighed and crouched down beside his bed.  
"There are also other ways. But sometimes it is better to weep among friends who understand your pain."  
For a moment, Matt wanted to ask something, but then remembered the stories that his predecessors had told him about the robots as war machines.  
"I didn’t want to be weak." He admitted sheepishly, staring at the now laughing robot confused.  
"Sorry, Matt. That wasn’t appropriate. But it amused me very much how similar humans and machines are sometimes." He absently stroked a hand over Matt's cover. "At that time I also always wanted to be strong. For Rabbit and The Jon. For Peter. I drove myself crazy with these memories, talked to no one about it and was strong." He shook his head. "It has eaten me from the inside, as you people always says. And we wanted to spare you. None of the others have to know if you don’t want. But for that I want you to talk to us if you are feeling bad, Matt. You're only weak if you can’t accept help."  
Between bites of his toast, Matt cleared his throat.  
"How long did it take you to figure this out?" He asked curiously. The Spine laughed again, but this time it sounded sad.  
"For too long? I was still carrying the memories of the world wars around with me when it came to Vietnam. After this war I broke down. Rabbit and The Jon were there for me as we would like to be for you. You can’t do this alone, otherwise you will be a danger to yourself."  
Thoughtful, Matt filled his glass with the orange juice and then looked at the robot. First he just smiled timidly, then the tears began to run and he embraced The Spine.  
"Thank you!"  
"You have messed up your breakfast." However, The Spine didn’t even attempt to clean up the mess, but returned the embrace of man.

Peter looked briefly up from his work as something green was placed before him. He ran the back of his pen over the leaves of the plant and a finger groped carefully whether the plant needed water.  
"This is a cypress." That was Matt's voice coming from behind the plant.  
"I see that. And what is a cypress doing on my desk, Mr. Smith?"  
"Maybe we can sit under it in a few years."  
For a brief moment in his life Peter was grateful for his mask. He felt the blood rushing to his cheeks and make him blush violently.  
"Oh yeah?" He tried to keep his voice neutral, hoping that Matt wouldn’t read it wrong.  
"I like cypresses. And ..." Matt was silent for a moment. "... You."  
Peter wanted to say something, but Matt held up a finger and pointed to the fact that he wasn’t finished.  
"I'll need time, Peter. A lot of time. But ..." Helpless, he shrugged and huffed frustrated because he lacked the words.  
"I like cypresses." He repeated resigned, what made Peter laugh.  
"We have made peace." He wanted to change the subject for Matt and soon realized the relief on the face of his opponent.  
"That's great!"  
"Cypresses, huh?" Peter could not help it.  
"Just kiss him already!" Rabbit leaned against the door frame and grinned satisfied that her plan had been successful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally I finished writing this piece. I'm always happy about kudos and comments! Thanks for reading!!


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